August 31st, 2009
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1. TEEN SERVICE ORGANIZATION
There is an effort to set up Teen Service Organizations in Southeast Volusia County. The following flyer was distributed last month. LINK It would seem that the only way to get these programs running on all cylinders in New Smyrna Beach is to take it away from direct City control and turn the programs over to volunteer organizations or the County. Our City thought that it was cool to keep the Babe James Teen Center closed on weekends.
2. OUR OPAQUE NEW SMYRNA BEACH GOVERNMENT
Every time we see something from Mayor Sally Mackay about how she runs a “transparent” government we pop another tranquilizer to keep us from laughing so hard. Who is writing this garbage for her? The Commissioners communicate privately in one way or another, maybe totally legally but we have our suspicions, and make all sorts of deals. The Commission meetings look scripted, and decisions like caving in to the Angler’s Club and not following sound legal advice prove the point. Fire Department Union demands or why they pay more for property they do not need and should not buy, are never discussed. On top of that, Sally says she has a diploma but she will not produce it. Now that is transparency.
“Best Blogs of the Week”
(Edited for grammar and punctuation)
A POTPOURRI OF CITIZEN COMMENTS IS
AGAIN PROVIDED THIS WEEK IN ORDER
FOR YOU TO GET IN TUNE WITH THE
MOOD OF OUR READERS
8/25/2009, 4:51 pm
WHAT!!
Munis around the country are downsizing and implementing furlough days. Medicare is reducing reimbursements. Social Security didn't give a cost of living increase. Businesses are closing their doors. FL leads in bankruptcies and foreclosures. The Economist says Florida is in major trouble, poor tax structure, resident exodus and no incoming industry. School enrollment is declining.
Volusia County gives 2% raises. Edgewater and NSB raise their millage rates. Edgewater's City Manager does not hold a college diploma and makes in excess of $100k per year in a town of less than 20k pop. And absolutely no industry - the 3 boat builders Edgewater gave all the breaks to be out-of-business.
The cracking sound you hear is the taxpayer's back breaking!
8/26/2009, 11:05 pm
We're watching Randy Richenberg
Randy Richenberg, for the record:
FACT: Randy voted to spend [an extra] $2.5 million for Esther Street property that sits there.
FACT: Randy voted to spend top market dollar for Dunn Lumber, knowing full well the property is polluted and had no other buyers.
FACT: Randy voted to fire City Manager John Hagood, setting in motion a $290,000 payout, plus tens of thousands for candidate search, including interviews, travel, background checks.
FACT: Randy tried to fire City Attorney Frank Gummey, which would have set in motion a $450,000 payout.
FACT: Randy voted to cut the current fiscal budget by $1.3 million and then months later whined in public that he was "bullied" into the vote and that he was "ashamed."
FACT: Randy failed to get federal stimulus money for high school project either through the county or the federal gov't through Kosmas.
FACT: Randy has no formal education; never even graduated from high school.
FACT: Randy has consistently voted for union increases to curry favor with union membership because his wife is a retired firefighter who has a $60K pension.
FACT: Randy brags that the union vote is in his pocket, and he's promised them bigger raises next year, if elected to make up for freezes this year, which he was against.
FACT: Randy has voted to sell out NSB on neighboring issues like the multi-million-dollar Restoration in Edgewater after consulting high-priced attorney Clay Henderson on his city-issued cell phone.
FACT: Randy says he wants the rollback rate for the budget but he voted against reducing it last month.
FACT: Randy Richenberg is incompetent, lacks leadership, has no formal education and even though he professes to care about NSB, runs a surfing shop out of neighboring Edgewater instead of here in NSB.
FACT: Randy has free health insurance for himself, his rich wife and his kid because he's a city commissioner.
Vote for Judy Reiker or Frank Dalton Jr. in the September 22 primary, and send Randy Richenberg home for good.
8/27/2009, 10:02 am
This makes sense! from NJ
Using the same auditing firm year after year is a big mistake. Using a local auditing firm that the city officials have a personal relationship with is a big mistake. The purpose of an audit is to rat out mismanagement and misconduct of city officials. It is hard to do this when you are concerned about getting the audit in the following year. Friends tend to get a pass. The Bernie Madoff's shopping center auditor is a good example of why using the same auditing firm year after year is a red flag. It is my impression that the city's long term finances are in much worse shape than what is being reported by the city's auditing firm. I hope I am wrong, but I do not see how New Smyrna Beach is any different than most the cities in the country. I would like a new auditing firm to take a look at the books. The amount a city employee receives in pension benefits is based on his or hers last few years of employment. The city through it labor contracts has created a system where the employees’ wages are basically double during this period so that the employees in the police and fire departments walk away with a pensions that are 100% or more of his or her average salary with the city. The city's police and fire department employees are allowed to retire in the mid 40's. This system has bankrupted a city in California and in time will bankrupt New Smyrna Beach. I think we need new auditors who will show more leadership and be more willing to sound the alarm when the city is engaging in poor business practices. I agree with Mr. Hathaway on the architect for the Chamber of Commerce. We do not need to send our bailout money to Key West. Most the local businessmen are going into their pockets to keep their doors open and their employees working. The CRA has millions of dollars in the bank that could be used for local road improvements that would immediately pump money into the local economy. Instead of using the money to help out the local economy, the CRA is using the money to buy over priced property from politically connected land owners that it has no use. Maybe if we get new auditors, the auditors might comment on this practice in the management letter and hopefully bring an end to it.
8/27/2009, 11:38 pm
Bdangkler
Q: If the Angler's Yacht Club collects money for all those slips day in and day out, month after month, year after year, where has all the money gone?
A: The Anglers Club does not charge its members $12 a foot for boat slips.
Angler’s club members pay a token amount to the club for boat slips.
This is one of the great benefits of membership. Cheap boat slips, cheap everything on the backs of NSB taxpayers.
By the way, Members and guests only.
NOTES
1. THE DUNN LUMBER FIASCO
An esteemed reader has favored the Shadow with the following thoughts. We note that the Dunn Lumber property is contaminated. It was over priced and the City paid too much. Now it turns out it that when they bought it they had no use in mind.
Sir,
I note, LINK, from the NSB City web-site has been posted asking for best use of the Old Dunn Lumber Property.
I must ask, surely some idea must reside within the Commissioners Heads when they purchased said property so why the request? Am I being a tad thick or do I smell something funny? With minimal space and a train track immediately behind, I don't think a high traffic volume or fancy Art & Craft Store would work. Why the old Badcocks Store has remained empty for quite awhile and yet I think this is eminently better suited to development!
As always, I'm sure you'll find a way to question our Elected Officials "spend and be damned" policies.
Resident –
The Shadow thinks there is nothing to find out. It is suggested that the owners needed cash, the City had your cash, and just did them a favor. Sally, Jack, and Randy do not care how they throw away your money.
2. MUNICIPAL GOLF COURSE LOSSES---GROWING
We figure they are losing about $65,000 a month at the New Smyrna Beach Municipal Golf Course. The loss as of July 31, 2009 was $196,000, which is over $130,000 more than they reported as of May 30, 2009 LINK. August is usually as bad as June and July. September might be slightly better if there are no hurricanes. Now they make no payment on the principal of the over $3 million note for renovations. They do not pay property taxes like the other golf courses. The real losses for the year, therefore, likely will be somewhere around $375,000 and $400,000. Better than last year where they lost almost $600,000, but then they just voted to go back to the membership formulae that cost the City $539,000 in 2008 as well as no tax on the property. Keep in mind also that the number of golfers continues to decline and the number of plays for each golfer is also declining.
3. GAMES AT BOUCHELLE ISLAND AND THE DEBATE MOVED TO HIDDEN LAKES
On Thursday last the debate of the candidates scheduled for Bouchelle Island on Saturday was moved to Hidden Lakes. Facts are hard to come by, but apparently the husband of one of the candidates , Judy Reiker, who is the President of the Bouchelle Island Association, was thought by the sponsors to have influenced the seating availability to the point where all but six of the available seats in the hall were allocated in such a way to exclude the nonresident public. LINK The debate Committee therefore moved the debate to Hidden Lakes Golf Course where none of the 200 or so seats were allocated and the general public was welcome. Then the Debate Committee agreed at the last minute on Friday last to change the format. The moderator, Jason Allen who is a reporter for Channel 9 ABC TV News, pulled out. LINK Makes you wonder who runs this town!
DEAR PAM
As we have stated in the past, we realize that the City Manager is limited in the resources available to her for pursuing cost reduction projects, so we have decided to help her out and provide draft letters for her review. As we have said, this will free her up for important things, like dealing with all the serious problems of the police and fire department pensions.
Dear Sally,
Are you really serious that I should research a proposal to only contract with New Smyrna Beach businesses? Aside from the legality issues, it will simply cost our taxpayers more money.
Pam
WHY SALLY SHOULD NOT BE REELECTED
She, Sally Mackay, has not earned reelection:
1. 27% Tax Increase:she cannot handle the budget.
2. Her ties to the City's Labor Unions
3. Her ties to the Angler’s Yacht Club
4. The local economy has collapsed and she is not fixing it.
5. Personal Property transferred by deeds in lieu of foreclosure-raises questions about her
ability to handle her own financial affairs.6. Changing story on her educational background. Her webpage before the last election
indicated she had graduated. The LINK is to Sally Mackay’s application for appointment to the zoning/planning Board in October 2003.She cannot be trusted. She did not go to Oxford.COUNTY RAISING GARBAGE TAX
Cost of fuel is down and salaries are stagnant. This rotten garbage tax increase by the County Council is no more than a tax to cover the refusal of the County Council to reduce spending to match income. How can the County possibly justify raising the garbage collection tax. It is an across the board tax increase for every household.
Then think of the Ponce Inlet Port Authority tax district. No port or harbor will ever be built. They take the tax, change the name to hide the fact that it was a tax to build a harbor, move three additional personnel to the section (employees who probably should have been furloughed), and continue to take your money. They should abolish the tax district.
In some places in this world the taxpayers would throw garbage at the officials who do things like this. Hey, are these not the same bunch that just gave the County Employees a 2% pay raise?
CONTRACT ONLY WITH
NEW SMYRNA BEACH COMPANIES
Buy American is now buy only from people who live in New Smyrna Beach. How short sighted can you be, and it is not only wrong but in all likelihood illegal. We are particularly amused at the “buy here” only attitude when it is applied to County grant money like the ill-conceived County grant to repair the Chamber of Commerce Building. Use County money but you cannot even spend it with a business in the County unless it is in NSB. The County should take its money back before it is sued by every contractor that has been discriminated against. Nor can one imagine that limiting bidding this way will result in the best service or the best price.
Next week at the New Smyrna Beach Commission (Tuesday Sept. 8th, 6:30 PM) meeting is when they plan to adopt the budget with the 27% increase in taxes. It is probably the most important meeting in years, and three of the Commissioners, Randy, Jack, and Lynn, are on record as approving this budget. Randy is easy to understand. He needs to protect the $64,000 pension his wife will receive for the next 30 or so years and she wants to make sure that her friends at the fire department also share in her bounty. He also pours money down the rat hole through subsidies to the Marine Discover Center. Jack is in the pocket of the employees unions as is Lynn. Sally will of course come up in all likelihood with a smaller increase and the use of some of the reserves. Any tax increase should be unacceptable. Let them reduce the budget to where they do not need a tax increase. The taxpayers can no longer keep shelling out millions of dollars to fund purchases like Dunn Lumber and Esther Street, huge subsidies to the Municipal Golf Course and Marine Discovery Center, not collecting market price revenue for City property such as the Angler’s Club, and buying $9,000 plastic Christmas trees.
This affects every elected body in the County. If they vote for this huge tax increase and the three up for election are reelected, everybody in the County will pay.
COUNTY RAISES EMPLOYEE PAY BY 2%--ONLY THREE MILLION TAXPAYERS DOLLARS
Seminole County froze all expenditures and laid off 120 employees. Here in Volusia the vote was four to three to give a 2% pay raise to Volusia County employees. If you do not like what these four Councilmen did in voting this latest pay increase, tell them.
Chairman Frank Bruno: 386 626-6582
Councilwoman Joie Alexander: 386 740-5224
Councilwoman Pat Northey: 386 740-5247
Councilman Josh Wagner: 386 239-7745
County Manager James Dinneen: 386 736-5920
[Another way is to call from New Smyrna Beach: call 423-3300 and ask for one of them by name.]
Maybe they will listen to you. Tell them you vote. Tell them to reverse this decision at the next budget meetings.
On Monday the US government announced that Social security recipients would not get any increases for what looked like the next two years. In fact, with increased adjustments for Medicare, each Social Security recipient likely would see a small decrease in their monthly check. On the same day the County Council announced that it was giving a two (2%) pay raise to ALL County employees. We do not get it. Do these four Councilmen who voted for this pay increase live on another planet? The Shadow does not understanding why County employees who work a little harder or who figure out how to save a few pennies on the job they are paid to do are entitled to a pay raise. Given the state of affairs, they are lucky to have a job. The people who pay taxes are squeezed to the point of not paying the mortgage or putting food on the table. Four of the Councilmen voted for this outrage. They seem to care more about whether they are greeted warmly by County employees than the taxpayers when they run for office.
The Shadow is waiting for the announcement that the County also has bought a $9,000 plastic Christmas tree. County employees we bet will offer to decorate it for free!
The International Association of Fire Fighters has agreed in the Vallejo California Bankruptcy case to drop its current contract and to agree to a full renegotiations of the agreement. The current contract would not have expired until June 2010. LINK Sally asked the local fire department here a year ago to “step up to the plate” and they kicked the City in the teeth. Among other things they insisted on keeping their mandatory four hours of overtime every pay period. Then the Commission gave them a pay raise.
An error in communications resulted in the transposition of some of the descriptions of the charges on the bottom left hand corner of the tax notices mailed last week. The numbers are correct, but the descriptions are wrong. Corrections will be mailed out this week. Also, the county decided to give homeowners extra time to figure out their taxes and appeal extending the deadline from September 18 to September 25.
The teamster union locals are interviewing the candidates to decide which ones they will support. They also plan to hold a debate. The Shadow can only guess that the behind the curtain discussions have not resulted in commitments by the candidates to protect the current system or promises of increased pay, pensions, and benefits. LINK Except for the contributions to the campaign, does any candidate want their endorsement?
WEBSITES OF CANDIDATES
New and Corrected
FOR MAYOR
Sally Mackay -----sallymackayformayor.com
Marilee Walters-- marileeformayor.com
Adam Barringer---adambarringerformayor.com
FOR COMMISSIONER ZONE TWO
Jack Grasty -------
Palmer Wilson --- palmerwilsonforcomissioner.com
Steve Sather -----
FOR COMMISIONER ZONE ONE
Randy Richenberg-
Judy Reichert ------- voteforjudynsb.com
Frank Dalton--------- frankdaltonforcommissioner.com
These will be updated as new information is received.
